For many years China experienced extremely rapid economic growth, with its GDP often growing by more than 10% in a year. In the last few years its growth has slowed a bit, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that its growth rate will fall to 7.3% next year and 6.5% by 2019. While this is a substantial decline from some of its sky-high growth rates in previous years, these numbers still represent very rapid growth. By comparison, US economic growth has averaged less than 2.5% per year during the past 5 years.

More than 5 years after the most acute phase of America’s financial crisis, the US unemployment rate is still far above its pre-crisis level. In a series of articles during the past few months, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers suggested that the economy may be in a persistently depressed state (a “secular stagnation” in the technical jargon). The article sparked renewed debate among economists about whether such a prolonged slump was theoretically possible, and if so, whether the economy was in one right now.